Una dies Fabios ad bellum miserat omnes;
Ad bellum missos perdidit una dies.
Ovid, Fasti, ii. 175-196, H.
Context. To protect their territory from the constant raids of the Veientines, the noble house of the Fabii offered to undertake the war themselves. The consul Kaeso Fabius marched out of the city at the head of his clan, followed by the blessings and good wishes of the admiring people. He erected a fortified camp near the R. Cremera (a tributary of the Tiber), and from this spot plundered Veientine territory.
1 campus. ‘Ovid here paints from fancy: there are, however, deep hollows admirably calculated to conceal an ambushed foe.’—Ramsay.
9 discursibus = runnings to and fro, of soldiers dispersing to plunder.
10 metus alter = fear of a second enemy, i.e. of one in ambush.
17 silvis Laurentibus. Laurentum on the coast of Latium between Ostia and Ardea. Wild boars are still found in the swampy thickets.
18 Fulmineo ore = with flashing tusk.—Hallam.
Parallel Passage. Livy, ii. 48, 49.